Center for Parasitic Organisms, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences, and Key Laboratory of Tropical Diseases Control, The Ministry of Education, Zhongshan Medical College, Sun Yat-Sen Zhongshan University, Guangzhou 510275, PR China.
Exp Parasitol. 2011 Jan;127(1):107-12. doi: 10.1016/j.exppara.2010.07.003. Epub 2010 Jul 7.
Congenital toxoplasmosis can cause fetal damage in humans and domestic animals. This study was focused on the effects of Toxoplasma gondii (Prugniaud strain) infection at different stages of pregnancy on the offspring of mice. Results showed that newborn mice from all infected groups were significantly lower in weight than those from the control group but significant difference was not found among these groups at day 60 after birth. The survival rate of the offspring from the group of mice infected at the earlier stage of pregnancy was significantly lower than those of infected and control groups. The positive offspring (with cysts found in their brain tissues) born from the mice infected at the earlier and intermediate stages of pregnancy showed a shorter latency and greater number of errors in the step-through passive avoidance test than those born from the mice infected at the late stage of pregnancy, the control group and the negative offspring from the infected groups. The number of cysts in the brain tissue was significantly higher in the offspring born from the groups of mice infected at the earlier and intermediate stages of pregnancy than those from the group of mice infected at the late stage of pregnancy. In addition, our results indicated that a high congenital transmission rate (90%) occurred in this NIH mouse model. In conclusion, the earlier and intermediate maternal infection of T. gondii can result in severe congenital toxoplasmosis, exhibiting conditions such as stillbirth or non-viability, and learning or memory capability damage in this mouse model. These results not only provide useful data for better understanding the effects of T. gondii infection on the offspring of mice infected at different stages of pregnancy but also for better consideration of the effect of this infection on other mammalian hosts including humans.
先天性弓形虫病可导致人类和家畜胎儿受损。本研究主要关注不同孕期弓形虫（普鲁加诺德株）感染对小鼠后代的影响。结果表明，所有感染组的新生小鼠体重明显低于对照组，但在出生后 60 天，各组之间无显著差异。孕早期感染组后代的存活率明显低于感染组和对照组。孕早期和中期感染组阳性（脑组织中有囊）后代在避暗式被动回避试验中潜伏期更短，错误次数更多，而孕晚期感染组、对照组和感染组阴性后代则无明显差异。孕早期和中期感染组小鼠后代脑组织中的囊数量明显高于孕晚期感染组。此外，我们的结果表明，在 NIH 小鼠模型中存在高先天性传播率（90%）。综上所述，孕早期和中期母体感染弓形虫可导致严重的先天性弓形虫病，在该小鼠模型中出现死胎或无活力，以及学习或记忆能力受损等情况。这些结果不仅为更好地了解不同孕期感染弓形虫对小鼠后代的影响提供了有用的数据，也为更好地考虑这种感染对包括人类在内的其他哺乳动物宿主的影响提供了依据。
